Pleasanton Weekly

Like mother, like daughter

Weekly celebrates Mother's Day with its annual lookalike contest

by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

Tuesdai Powers, 44, has been told her entire life that she looks like her mother, Cynthia Howard.

"She used to work as a checker at Safeway, the Santa Rita store, and I worked near Koll Center, and I would go to lunch and people would be staring at me," Tuesdai recalled. "One time I was going to refinance my house and the guy was shocked, I could tell. I said, 'You know my mom, she works at Safeway.'"

They are this year's winners in the Pleasanton Weekly 2013 Mother-Daughter Lookalike Contest.

"Our voices are even the same, which got me out of school often," Tuesdai said with a laugh.

"I look a lot like my dad, too, my dad's side of the family," she added. "Mom and dad look like brother and sister."

Her sister Quaker Varin looks nothing like them but her outgoing personality matches their mom's, Tuesdai said.

"Mom was one of most outgoing checkers at Safeway," she explained. "She would even drive people home. She is very, very outgoing."

Tuesdai lives in Castro Valley with her husband, Chris Smith, and daughters Riley, 12, and Chloe, 6, who, she noted, do not share the maternal resemblance.

"They look a lot like their dad," Tuesdai said.

Cynthia retired about 10 years ago from Safeway, is now single, and lives in Brentwood. But she comes to Pleasanton often to visit her boyfriend, Ray Brown, who has lived here for more than 50 years.

"She's in Pleasanton all the time so she saw the contest in the paper, and I said, 'I totally want to win,'" Tuesdai said.

Tuesdai comes to the Pleasanton Sports Park two nights a week in the summertime to play softball, which Cynthia and Ray enjoy watching.

"My sister and I look a lot alike," Laura said. "She's a year older, and people used to ask if we were twins."

The Weekly received 42 entries into the lookalike contest this year and more than 1,000 votes were cast online for the winners. Thank you to everyone who participated, and to the moms: Happy Mother's Day.

"We are so excited to win," said Tuesdai. "People always said we look alike."